A good robot/monster attack movie

Rating: 6/10 (10 July 2013)

This is a bit of Transformers meets Alien meets Real Steel meets Godzilla meets Avatar. Aliens (who resemble the ones from Alien and Howard the Duck) emerge from beneath the ocean surface to attack coastal cities, and humans develop giant robots manned by two pilots to bring them down. After a defeat early on by our hero, played by Charlie Hunnam, this robot program faces elimination. And a rogue captain tracks down Hunnam (who's taken a civilian job) and attempts to save Hong Kong using the last of the robots. Hunnam wishes to team with a young Japanese woman, whom the captain cares for, but she has difficulty overcoming the emotions left over from the killing of her family during an alien attack.
I saw this from the front row, and the 3D was excellent. I really felt as though I were going to get wet or hit with debris. The visual effects and look of the movie were excellent. Some of the charterization and script are problematic. The two scientists at the base are pencil necked, squeaky voiced comic relief characters and it's hard to tell if they're giving bad performances or the script just demanded that they act like cartoons. The soldiers, especially Hunnam, try so hard to be macho it's almost funny. He's concentrating so hard on looking butch, he forgets to act and his accent fades in and out. Nonetheless, I think if he becomes less self conscious about his acting, he could be a big star. He has a bit of a Brad Pitt look about him. The Japanese woman is a bit of a weak character. The audience is supposed to giggle as she coos around Charlie, and I suppose some people might think it's sexist that the only major woman in the movie is portrayed most of the time as being too emotional to be a pilot. Obviously, most people aren't going to a movie like this for the script and compelling characters. I compared it to Transformers above, but only because of the robots. One great thing is that I can always tell who's who, where the action is happening, and what the stakes are. In Transformers, action scenes go on for forty minutes and we aren't clear who's attacking who. There are some clichés during attack scenes, with bits of obvious humor thrown in. But generally I think this movie will win over most people. Definitely don't wait to see it on video. See it 3D in the theater if this title interests you at all.